EVE Online: Incarna’s multiplayer to launch sometime this year

Multiplayer for EVE Online’s Incarna expansion will be added this year sometime, according to the game’s senior producer, Arnar Gylfason.

Speaking during a press conference CCP held yesterday over Skype with the game’s Council of Stellar Management, Gylfason said the multiplayer update will be the game’s “next big evolution,” but there is more content on the way before the big release.

“We’re going to see more racial variance of captain’s quarters added in the next few months,” said Gylfason. “The next phase of Incarna will be the multiplayer establishments, and I really don’t think I can give any solid timeline on that just yet. But we’re looking at this year, definitely, for the next big evolution on that front.”

The multiplayer portion of Incarna will see player avatars interacting with one another, but until then, player avatars will only be able to walk around in their Captain’s quarters once the ship is docked. However, Gylfason insisted the world will still feel “seamless and integrated,” and as a player moves from their ship to the quarters, it will be more that just ” a toggle switch in your settings,” a player actively selects when they dock.

“It’s seamless and integrated with everything else,” he said, “and we’ll, of course, make designs and design ideas available whenever they become available.”

You can read the full transcript of the Skype call over on Massively, which also discusses the recent controversy surrounding the game’s new vanity items and store.